Cultures of Politics Politics of Cultures

by Alvarez, Sonia E.; Dagnino, Evelina; Escobar, Arturo

• ISBN13: 9780813330716
• ISBN10: 0813330718
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Investigating the complex interrelations between culture and politics in a wide range of social movements in Latin America, this book focuses on the cultural politics enacted by social movements as they struggle for new visions and practices of citizenship, democracy, social relations, and development. The volume explores the potential of these cultural politics for fostering alternative political cultures and social transformations. Theoretical and empirical chapters assess and build upon novel conceptions of culture and politics in a variety of disciplines and fieldsparticularly anthropology, political science, sociology, feminist theory, and cultural studies.The notion of the cultural politics of social movements provides a lens for analyzing emergent discourses and practices grounded in society and culture, the state and political institutions, and the extent to which they may unsettle, or be reinscribed into, the dominant neoliberal strategies of the 1990s. Contributors explore how social movementsurban popular, women's, indigenous, and black movements as well as movements for citizenship and democracyengage in the cultural resignification of notions such as rights, equality, and difference, thus altering what counts as political. By highlighting simultaneously the cultural dimensions of the political and the political dimensions of the cultural, the book transcends the distinction between "new" and "old" social movements and thus significantly renews our understanding of them.

Author Biography

Arturo Escobar is assistant professor of anthropology at Smith College. Sonia E. Alvarez is associate professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Sonia E. Alvarez is associate professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Evelina Dagnino is associate professor of political science at the State University of Campinas in São Paulo. Arturo Escobar is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts. Arturo Escobar is assistant professor of anthropology at Smith College. Sonia E. Alvarez is associate professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
1 Introduction: The Cultural and the Political in Latin American Social Movements	1	(32)
Sonia E. Alvarez
Evelina Dagnino
Arturo Escobar
Reconceptualizing the Cultural in Latin American Social Movements Research	2	(8)
Reconceptualizing the Political in Latin American Social Movements Research	10	(4)
Culture and Politics in Social Movement Networks or Webs	14	(2)
Social Movements and the Revitalization of Civil Society	16	(2)
Social Movements and the Trans/formation of Public Politics	18	(3)
Globalization, Neoliberlism, and the Cultural Politics of Social Movements	21	(2)
Notes	23	(2)
References	25	(8)
PART ONE THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP, DEMOCRACY, AND THE STATE	33	(108)
2 Culture, Citizenship, and Democracy: Changing Discourses and Practices of the Latin American Left	33	(31)
Evelina Dagnino
From the Kingdom of Ideology and the State to the Apogee of Hegemony and Civil Society	35	(11)
Democracy and Citizenship: The Cultural Politics of Social Movements	46	(11)
Notes	57	(4)
References	61	(3)
3 Social Rights: Conflicts and Negotiations in Contemporary Brazil	64	(29)
Maria Celia Paoli
Vera da Silva Telles
The Construction of a Democratic Field of Conflict: Social Movements and Political Sociability	67	(10)
Democratic Construction in Question: The Current Labor Movement	77	(4)
Citizenship and Workers: Recent Studies	81	(5)
Notes	86	(3)
References	89	(4)
4 New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the "New Democracies"	93	(25)
Veronica Schild
Social Movements and the Problem of State-Civil Society Relations in Neoliberal Modernizing Projects	96	(3)
From the Margins to the Center? Women in the New Chilean Democracy	99	(4)
The Expanding Networks of the Women's Movement in Chile	103	(7)
Conclusions	110	(1)
Notes	111	(4)
References	115	(3)
5 The Explosion of Experience: The Emergence of a New Ethical-Political Principle in Popular Movements in Porto Alegre, Brazil	118	(23)
Sergio Gregorio Baierle
Urban Popular Movements in the Changing Landscape of Brazilian Politics	118	(3)
Political Crisis and New Notions of Citizenship	121	(3)
The Participatory Budget Movement in Porto Alegre: 1989-1996	124	(11)
Social Movements and the Emergence of a New Ethical-Political Principle	135	(1)
References	136	(5)
PART TWO THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF ETHNICITY, RACE, AND GENDER	141	(152)
6 Ambiguity and Contradiction in a Radical Popular Movement	141	(24)
Jeffrey Rubin
Leaders as Children of the Pueblo	144	(1)
Regime Violence and the Threat of Indigenous Explosiveness	145	(1)
Militancy	146	(1)
Political Ideology and Political Parties	147	(1)
Outsiders	147	(1)
Militancy and Ordinary Juchitecos	148	(1)
Democracy	149	(2)
Economic Change and Political Activism	151	(2)
Disorganization and Backward Vision	153	(2)
Ethnicity, Gender, and Cultural Projects	155	(1)
Gender, Cultural Elaboration, and Radical Organizing	156	(2)
COCEI's Cultural Project	158	(2)
Conclusion	160	(1)
Notes	161	(2)
References	163	(2)
7 Indigenous Movements as a Challenge to the Unified Social Movement Paradigm for Guatemala	165	(31)
Kay B. Warren
Fissures in the "Popular" Model for Grassroots Organizing	167	(2)
The Pan-Mayan Movement in Guatemala: An Overview	169	(2)
Public Intellectuals: Historical Continuities and Transformations	171	(2)
The Pan-Mayan Movement and Its Educational Projects	173	(1)
Critics of the Pan-Mayan Movement	174	(3)
Revisiting Material Versus Cultural Dilemmas: Thoughts on Cultural Capital	177	(3)
Pan-Mayanists, Upward Mobility, and Different Ways of Being "Middle Class"	180	(3)
Coalitional Possibilities: Defining Common Purpose Across Cleavages	183	(4)
Conclusions	187	(1)
Notes	188	(3)
References	191	(5)
8 The Process of Black Community Organizing in the Southern Pacific Coast Region of Colombia	196	(24)
Libia Grueso
Carlos Rosero
Arturo Escobar
Ethnicity, Territory, and Politics	196	(1)
The Constitutional Reform of 1991 and the End of the Invisibility of Black Cultures	197	(4)
The Social Movement of Black Communities and the Ethno-Cultural Proposal of the Process of Black Communities	201	(4)
Territory, Identity, and Strategy: From Cultural Politics to Political Culture	205	(7)
The Question of Development	212	(1)
Conclusion	213	(1)
Notes	214	(3)
References	217	(3)
9 Black Movements and the "Politics of Identity" in Brazil	220	(32)
Olivia Maria Gomes da Cunha
Politics and Culture: Questions and Meanings	221	(16)
The Stage Is the Shantytown: Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae	237	(6)
Conclusion	243	(3)
Notes	246	(3)
References	249	(3)
10 Beyond the Domestic and the Public: Colonas Participation in Urban Movements in Mexico City	252	(26)
Miguel Diaz-Barriga
Urban Movements in Mexico City	255	(2)
The Channeling of Needs	257	(4)
Welding Development Alternatives with Lo Cotidiano	261	(3)
New Ways of Doing Politics	264	(6)
Webs of Political Participation	270	(2)
Conclusions	272	(1)
Notes	273	(2)
References	275	(3)
11 Defrocking the Vatican: Feminism's Secular Project	278	(15)
Jean Franco
Notes	287	(6)
PART THREE GLOBALIZATION, TRANSNATIONALISM, AND CIVIL SOCIETY	293	(112)
12 Latin American Feminisms "Go Global": Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millennium	293	(32)
Sonia E. Alvarez
Forging a Latin American Feminist Identity in the Singular	295	(3)
Latin American Feminism "Goes Plural"	298	(4)
The Absorption of (Select) Feminist Discourses and Agendas by Organized Civil Society, Political Society, and National and International Policy Arenas	302	(2)
The Re/configuration of the Latin American Feminist Movement Field in the 1990s	304	(2)
The "NGOization" of Latin American Feminisms	306	(2)
The Increased Articulation and Transnationalization of Latin American Feminist Organizations, Agendas, and Strategies	308	(3)
Global Feminism and Its Discontents: Tensions and Contradictions in an Expansive, Heterogeneous Social Movement Field	311	(4)
Concluding Reflections	315	(2)
Notes	317	(3)
References	320	(5)
13 Cybercultural Politics: Political Activism at a Distance in a Transnational World	325	(28)
Gustavo Lins Ribeiro
Globalization and Transnationalism	326	(1)
Levels of Integration, Transnationalism, and Imagined Communities	327	(1)
The Internet and the Virtual Imagined Transnational Community	328	(4)
Cybercultural Politics	332	(5)
Electronic Networks for NGOs	337	(3)
Activism and Electronic Networks	340	(2)
Conclusions	342	(3)
Notes	345	(3)
References	348	(5)
14 The Globalization of Culture and the New Civil Society	353	(27)
George Yudice
Globalization and Cultural Studies	354	(3)
Globalization and Culture in Latin America	357	(4)
Culture Under Neoliberalism	361	(3)
The Zapatistas and the Struggle for Civil Society	364	(8)
Conclusion	372	(2)
Notes	374	(1)
References	375	(5)
15 Rethinking the Spatialities of Social Movements: Questions of (B)orders, Culture, and Politics in Global Times	380	(25)
David Slater
Movements and the Remapping of the Political	381	(4)
Issues of Interpretation	385	(4)
Locating the Geopolitical	389	(3)
Inside/Outside and Zones of Resistance	392	(4)
Knowledge and Movements: Some Concluding Remarks	396	(1)
Notes	397	(2)
References	399	(6)
PART FOUR THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE CULTURAL AND THE POLITICAL IN LATIN AMERICAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS	405	(32)
16 Toward a Culture of Participation and Citizenship: Challenges for a More Equitable World	405	(10)
Elizabeth Jelin
Democracy and Inequality: Polarization, Fragmentation, Marginality	406	(3)
Actors and Spokespersons: Social Movements and NGOs in the 1990s	409	(3)
Social Movements at the Turn of the Century	412	(1)
Notes	413	(1)
References	414	(1)
17 Final Comments: Challenges to Cultural Studies in Latin America	415	(7)
Paulo J. Krischke
Notes	420	(1)
References	420	(2)
18 Third World or Planetary Conflicts?	422	(8)
Alberto Melucci
A Prologue on Culture, Politics, and Domination	422	(1)
The Meaning of Collective Action	423	(2)
Conflicts, Inequality, Democracy	425	(2)
The Dilemmas of a Planetary Society	427	(3)
19 Where To? What Next?	430	(7)
Mary Louise Pratt
Notes	436	(1)
About the Editors and Contributors	437	(4)
Index	441